The role of eudaimonic well-being for entrepreneurial entry and persistence : A quantitative study of eudaimonic well-being as predictor for entrepreneurial tendencies and chances of persistence

Eudaimonic well-being, which leads to personal functioning, finds increasing attention in entrepreneurshipresearch. Its positive effects suggest that eudaimonia helps individuals to overcome difficulties andchallenges which the entrepreneurial process brings. Based on the self-determination theory,...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Altenburger, Christian
Format: Others
Language:English
Published: Jönköping University, Internationella Handelshögskolan 2021
Subjects:
Online Access:http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:hj:diva-53117
Description
Summary:Eudaimonic well-being, which leads to personal functioning, finds increasing attention in entrepreneurshipresearch. Its positive effects suggest that eudaimonia helps individuals to overcome difficulties andchallenges which the entrepreneurial process brings. Based on the self-determination theory, individualswith higher eudaimonic well-being can also be expected to be more likely to enter self-employment asoccupational choice proactively. Thus, this thesis builds a construct which shows the influence ofeudaimonic well-being on the process of entering and sustaining in self-employment. The methodologicalapproach to measure eudaimonic well-being is built on existing research. Using eudaimonia to predictentrepreneurial entry and persistence is novel and tested on a large panel dataset from Australia.The findings show, contrary to the literature, no difference in eudaimonic well-being of those who changefrom paid employment to self-employment compared to those who stay in paid employment. The resultsalthough fail to reject the hypothesis that eudaimonic well-being influences the likelihood of entrepreneurialpersistence. Higher eudaimonic well-being shows, statistically not significant, positive impact on thechances to sustain in self-employment. This adds evidence to existing literature on entrepreneurialpersistence and eudaimonic well-being. Activities that increase eudaimonia can therefore be seen asbeneficial to create long-term persistent entrepreneurs and businesses.